Now we come to the subtle, but necessary, metaphysical difference between concepts and perception. Though they are often used interchangeably, concepts and percepts are not the same. Concepts are objective; they have taken form. How we perceive of circumstances is subjective. Our perceptions dictate the spirit that is inherent in our concepts. Just as "in the beginning is the Word, and the Word is made flesh," in the beginning are our perceptions and those perceptions then become our formed concepts. We are all made in the image of God, but as long as we entertain a false perception of who we are, we can't live it. Spiritually speaking, in order to change ourselves or change someone else, it does not mean we have to change who they or we are. We have to change our way of perceiving who we or they are.

Webster's Dictionary says that a concept is something that is conceived in the mind, and that to perceive comes from a Latin root word, "percipere," which means "to take hold of." By perceiving them, concepts become objects you take hold of. What you take hold of becomes that which is real to you. It follows that how you perceive reality actually creates your reality. Again, a Trinity experience takes place. Your perception is the father and your spirit is the mother that conceives and gives birth to the son, your concept. The three are one. As such, a concept does not exist apart from how the mind perceives it and how the spirit animates the concept.

A great number of metaphysicians and others unwittingly make a wrong turn by perceiving humanhood as something separate and apart from God. When we judge anything in the visible scene as anything other than a materialized conception, we are conceiving of an effect as something other than cause and are placing ignorance before truth.

I am pounding away at the importance of perception and concepts because there is an ancient mystery school secret involved with the power of concepts. As is the case with most alchemists' secret, where they transmute base metal into gold, it is so simple that we cannot believe it: never deal with a problem at the level of the problem. Change your concept and the appearance will change. If through our perceptions our conceptions come out of pure Love, the Christ is born.

Personally, I don't want to save the world. I don't think it needs saving, but when I see someone crying out in pain while continuing to hit their thumb with a hammer, I naturally feel inclined to say "Stop. You don't need to do that. Change the way you perceive of the situation that causes you pain and your imagination will stop creating it." Though it may not be as obvious as a hammer blow, when the Scripture says "Judge not that ye be not judged, " it is saying that we become what we perceive and conceptualize.

We hear that we should not judge, but few people tell us why judgment is something to be avoided. It is a mistake to judge because when we judge we are acknowledging that the concept we entertain has power, and, by doing so through our perception, we give it power. We become what we judge. There are no two ways about it. Whatever law we perceive, we dignify and empower.

God's creations are actual and not changeable; so we have a yardstick by which we can check to see if our concepts reflect reality or if they are judgments. Behind all appearances there is an unchangeable reality; therefore, if a concept can be changed it is not to be taken as ultimate reality. When our scientists tell us something has to be seen in order to exist, they confirm that what we perceive with our eyes is a creation of our minds or consciousness, rather than a true fact. Mystics are individuals who are so subjectively aware of the truth of being that though they see material objects they do not believe that cause is material. They have found that by changing their perception of what claims to be taking place, the forms that appear change accordingly. That, of course, is the secret of spiritual healing.

Spiritual healings are the result of altered perceptions. By double thinking, we can constantly remember reality (it is all God) and we can act upon that truth rather than re-act to the changeable concepts with which we are confronted. The way we can be in the world and not react to it is to constantly perceive that within every person, place, or situation is something spiritual that is unchangeable. Within every form or concept, there lies hidden something that is permanent--the presence of God, Spirit, or essential being.


Since recorded history; those people who have offered the most to society, who have added to the betterment of humankind, who have created inspired art, who have contributed to those scientific breakthroughs that have made life more manageable, have all claimed that life is meaningless without a faith in God. Ask them to define God and you would have as many different descriptions as there are people you have asked. However, they all have one common denominator--they all have faith.

Faith is not something you think or feel. It is something you do that can take you from finite limitation into infinite possibility. I, for one, found out a long time ago that I could not live without faith, but it took me even longer to realize that faith was not something that worked on me from outside of myselL My having faith was not as though I would blindly push a button that would turn on some outside godly resource. Faith is not an invisible servant that is there to do my bidding on call. Faith is something I must do--something I must do that empowers me.

Scripture tells you, "...if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. " However, when you discover what faith is, you will find that misguided faith can also cause mountains to fall on you as well. Whatever you have faith in, you create--good or bad. When the principle of faith becomes a conscious activity, your destiny is in your own hands, and you no longer need to look to a God outside of yourself for protection or success. When you consciously know how and why faith works, superstition is replaced by knowledge and you go beyond having faith into being faith-full "and nothing shall be impossible unto you."

What actually is faith? All of our lives we have been told we should have faith. Though Paul said that "faith is the substance of things hoped for," no one has told us what faith really is or how it works. Sure, the dictionary says that faith was derived from the Latin word "fidere" which means to trust, but what makes trusting work? Everything we have in life and every situation in which we find ourselves is the result of an activity of faith; so what is it?

Let me cut to the chase: Faith isn't something we have; faith is something we do. Faith is an energy; Faith is the power inherent in what we see or perceive. If faith is the substance of things hoped for, then faith becomes our "seeing" because what we image or see manifests outwardly in form.

Starting with the First Chapter of Genesis, God first had an idea and then actively "saw" it fulfilled. Remember, at each stage he had a concept and then saw that it was good. We, too, have to complement our ideas with seeing them in order for them to come into being. Just having an idea isn't enough. We have to complement it with the energy of seeing it happening. That seeing is what faith is. When we say that someone has faith, it means they have seen and been convinced that the harmony they seek will come about, and it does to the degree that they see it.

Faith is the seed we plant in consciousness. The Scripture says "Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed... " Those seeds, like the mustard seed, symbolize seed-thoughts. "In the beginning was the Word (the seed), and the Word was made flesh," means that the word is a seed that is planted in consciousness, and then by being "seen" becomes flesh. That is faith in action. When our seed-thoughts are conceived of and then seen as reality, they complement each other and become activated faith. Faith that succeeds is not something that happens from outside. It is the result of our seeding our own thoughts in consciousness, and then faithfully energizing them by seeing them into being.

In Genesis, it says that while we are still at the earth level, the level of personal sense, we have a time to plant our seeds and a time to harvest the results. But, through Spirit, the planting and harvesting can be instantaneous, as Jesus said, "Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you; Lift up your eyes (your seeing), and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest." When we need something and can see it into being, miraculously the harvest will appear.

Whether you know it or not, you are having faith all day long, because you are constantly planting thought-seeds and seeing them in your mind's eye. That is why I say that misguided faith can produce negative results as well as positive ones. It depends on what you have faith in, what you seed ("see" with the addition of a "d.")

We plant the seed and then we wait. However, waiting is not static. Waiting is not silent resignation. It is active service. In the same way that we are waited on in a restaurant or a store, we must wait on God, wait on the principles of faith to be active as our consciousness. We must see it, serve it, love it, honor it, and actively co-create with the divine process of imagination. "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."

You have been given an insurance policy, a spiritual law for faith; a law that will assure you that faith will create your highest good. That law is "seek (see) ye first the kingdom of God." Plant that spiritual seed, see it, and your faith-full seeing will create it in form. Make sure that the seed you are planting is spiritual, is constituted of love and divinity. Have faith that God's will is being done, not will be, or should be, but see it as being done. "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me (in your inner self) " Plant yourself in God. Then you will have gone beyond faith, because you will "be" faith.


Until one has gone beyond prayer, one most likely thinks of prayer as something one does. When we think or say prayers, we are indulging in an objective approach. To go beyond praying is to "be" prayer. In order to do that, you have to transcend conscious thought by merging with the process. You have to see yourself as "being prayed" rather than as praying. Both thought-filled prayer and experiential prayer have value, and either, when exclusive of the other, may find itself unsuccessful. Unless conscious seeds of faith accompany the experience, there is no direction, and unless thoughtful prayer is spiritually experienced, it is a futile endeavor.

Many have been led up the garden path by having been told that they should "pray without ceasing." If they see prayer as an objective act, then to pray without ceasing would mean they would have to be thinking of prayers all day long. Many in and out of monasteries have tried this by either countless repetitions of mantra-like prayers or by hours upon hours of sitting, kneeling, or bending in prayer. Others have believed that there is the possibility of being so selfless as to be able to live at a permanently impersonal level of Higher consciousness, but they have failed, because totally transcending the personal while still in a body is impossible. Jesus didn't.

In the new paradigm, at which time we go beyond old concepts of prayer, both the act of praying and the experience of spirit fit together in a perhaps surprising way, a way that takes us beyond prayer. For instance, some people believe that a mystic is someone whose thoughts are constantly on God; however, a modern mystic is one who has reconciled life into a oneness where it is all God. He or she may only pray or meditate for a relatively short period every morning, and not at all throughout the day or night unless something calls on him or her to return to a conscious realization of oneness. In other words, modern mystics have a time when they consciously meditate, when they clean the slate, tune in to the Spirit, and receive guidance. However, for the rest of the day, they go about the business of living or working without consciously thinking of God or "beingness" because they are actually being it. That is, they do until or unless something comes up that signals them to return to their center, to stop whatever they are doing, and remake contact.

There is a golden key that unlocks the mystery of prayer. Complicated theologies, superstitious rituals, and elaborate metaphysics can lead you further away from the mystery, until you finally realize that there is no wrong way and no right way to pray All roads lead equally to Rome if, at the center of your heart and soul, the one magical element that transcends all others is pure--your intent.

The intellect with all its often inhibiting shortcomings and confusions is set aside if at a level beyond thought or theory your intent is to evoke the Spirit of the divine in and as your life. No matter what church you do or do not go to, no matter how well you know the Bible, no matter how much time you spend praying, no matter if you feel you have never experienced God, if your intent is pure and heartfelt, you can put aside everything that has gone before and the miracle will ultimately happen.

God is not mocked. Despite the jungle of words and thoughts, your unconscious soul knows the purity of your love and desire. Your intent is the altar upon which the Sacrament rests. It is how you take communion with your Holy Self. It is the magical key that opens the door to prayer. Honor it. Keep it pure and it will pray you.

The Eleventh Step in AA, which is arrived at after making contact with God, asks that we do His will and that we have the power to carry it out. The Twelfth Step acknowledges having received awakening and it asks that we dedicate ourselves to living by that experience. Finally, after the twelve steps have been taken, disturbing as it may seem, we find there is another step to take--a Thirteenth Step--a step beyond being an instrument for God or of doing God's will. As long as we think in terms of doing God's will, as though it is or could be other than our own wills, there are still "two," something that needs to be united with something else. As long as we think of achieving union with God, we have yet to see that right now we are already God appearing as us. Right this minute, we are all that God is. When we experience that, we will have taken the Thirteenth Step.

The Thirteenth Step is the step beyond deity. Ancient Yogis or sages in both India and the West have tried to propose this totally absolute step, but because evolution itself had not progressed to the place that it is now, that step could not be explained or lived by the majority. In the past, it was thought that taking the Thirteenth Step meant rejecting the world and one's humanity, that taking the step beyond concepts meant transcending all action, and that unity and multiplicity were in conflict. Our evolved ability to simultaneously think from two different viewpoints or dimensions now makes it possible for us to be aware of and live in both the visible world of personal sense and the invisible world of Spirit without being caught between two worlds and without denying individuality or contradicting our absolute oneness. The Thirteenth Step does away with the limited, abstract, and remote concepts we have assumed God to be, or at least takes us beyond the limits of anything we have been able to conceive of as God.

As long as God remains only a thinkable concept to you, you are still in the past. Until you know what it means to experience the Spirit beyond words and thoughts, the Thirteenth Step cannot be taken. Each previous concept of God leading up to your experiencing union with God brings you closer to a sense of One being. Finally, you come to the Thirteenth Step, a step beyond being a channel for God or beyond hearing God's words, as though God is other than your own self. That step is taken when the concept of God "and" is replaced by the realization that everything including your own self is God appearing "as." This final step allows you to be active in the world without duality because you realize everything is God appearing individually.

Does going beyond God "and" mean that there is no God to call on? Certainly not. If God is the Infinite Source within you, when you call on God you are calling on your own Higher Consciousness, and that is as necessary and mysterious as it ever was. That kind of prayer is the only way you can go beyond past concepts.

Let me repeat--there is no way you can possibly go beyond words and thoughts unless you have become consciously aware that it is all God.